Jarno Trulli confirmed as Lotus F1 first driver

Lotus are set to announce their first new driver for 2010, within a few days or potentially hours.

The Malaysian backed outfit is headed up by Tony Fernandes. He wrote on his official Twitter page;

“Malaysia Formula 1 team, aka Lotus, has signed its first driver,” Fernandes wrote.

“Public announcement soon. The dream continues.”

After a discussion between Fernandes and Autosport Magazine was published recently, it is likely that the two drievrs could be Jarno Trulli and Takuma Sato. Kamui Kobayashi has been linked to the seat and looks an increasingly likely possibility as Fernandes seems to disagree with Mike Gascoyne the technical chief on having 2 experienced drivers and suggests that one youngster would be more useful.

“If we can get a guy who has been doing it for a long time, that’s fantastic because you can’t buy experience and he can help us develop the car and the team,” said Fernandes. “And he can help us after the race, adding value to driver development.

“On the second driver, I think that it’s good to have someone young because sometimes if you have been doing it for 15 years there is a little bit of cynicism and it gets repetitious. If you’ve got an energetic young guy that rubs off on you. Ultimately, I will leave it to Mike and the team to decide.”